Meat quality of mixed sex lambs grazing pasture and supplemented with, roughage, oats or oats and sunflower meal

The meat quality of 8–9-month-old cryptorchid, wether and ewe lambs (Poll Dorset×Border Leicester×Merino) was assessed. These lambs were grazed over summer and autumn from weaning (November) on lucerne (Medicago sativa) or ryegrass/clover (Lolium rigidum/trifolium subterranean) pasture at two locations (A or B). After 72 days lambs grazed on lucerne were supplemented with either ad lib clover hay or clover silage. Those grazed on the ryegrass/clover pasture were supplemented from weaning with either oat grain (400–600 g/h day and clover hay ad lib) or oat grain (200–400 g/h day) plus sunflower seed meal (200 g/h day) and clover hay ad lib. Lambs were slaughtered in April and May after they reached 48 kg liveweight. Lambs supplemented solely with roughage produced muscle (m. longissimus thoracis et lumborum; LTL) with a higher (P<0.05) pH, but there was no effect of nutrition or sex on meat colour or tenderness. Slaughter day affected tenderness of the topside (m. semimembranosus). Assessment of aroma, flavour and acceptability was undertaken on the m. biceps femoris from wether and cryptorchid lambs using an experienced taste panel. There was no clear effect of sex or nutrition on the assessment of the sensory attributes. However, panellists considered meat from cryptorchid lambs fed the oats/sunflower supplement and grazed at location B, to have a stronger aroma and flavour (P<0.05) and in some cases to be less acceptable than meat from other combinations of sex, diet and location. The most acceptable meat came from lambs supplemented with oats, irrespective of sex or location. As such, these effects could not be attributed solely to either the diet or sex, but suggest there are conditions where meat from cryptorchids can be less acceptable.